Two senior citizens from the Mahoning Valley will be honored Thursday when they're inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame.

Both 88-year-old George Beelen, of Canfield and 71-year-old Marcia Harmon-Walker of Girard will both be inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame Thursday, September 19 at 1:30 p.m.

Beelen founded the Ohio Cultural Alliance (OCA) in the 1980s. The OCA is an organization dedicated to uniting the people of the Valley by allowing them to explore the wide variety of cultures available to them.

Beelen brought many speakers and artists to the area to help OCA members learn about several topics over the course of more than 30 years. He also introduced residents to various types of cuisine, produced four culture-related films and multiple written works.

Beelen earned degrees from Youngstown State University, Western Reserve University and Kent State University. He also served as an English teacher at Poland High School and was selected as a John Hay Fellow in the Humanities, which is the most prestigious award for high school teachers.

Meanwhile, Harmon-Walker is one of the first women in Youngstown to become president of the police chaplain corps. She was also a former employee of the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center.

She served as a chaplain for the Youngstown Police Department in the 1990s where she helped drug dealers in the area consider changing their ways while introducing religion into their lives.

Harmon-Walker has been a licensed minister since 2001. She also took a course with the Youngstown Citizen's Police Academy to help bridge the gap between the community and the police.

The induction ceremony will take place at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.